Zaci vs The Pelagir
by Senashenta
Summary: Sometimes a Companion just can't look her best when she's On Search. Particularly when the Gods are conspiring against her.


**Disclaimer:** Valdemar and concepts belong to Mercedes Lackey. This fic and original characters belong to their author.

**Notes:** Zaci was an rpg character of mine from a few years back. Unfortunately I never got to do much with her, so I'm writing this now because I have the inspiration and Zaci is fun to write. Barely a one-shot, it's probably closer to a drabble. Oh well. At least it's not angsty? XD

**ZACI VS THE PELAGIR  
By Senashenta**

_:Damn forest. Damn bushes. Damn squirrels. Damn! Bloodflies!:_

Surprised by the sudden stab of pain that signified having been bitten, Zaci muttered a very undignified yelp of surprise and hurriedly flicked her tail to knock the insufferable bloodsuckers away. Then she continued trudging through the Pelagiris, muttering to herself in much the same way her father always did.

_:Where am I going? Oh, of course! I'm following my Call, which is making me skip off into the middle of freaking nowhere in the Pelagiris Forest.:_

She had decided two day before, after having spent an entire day wandering the woods, that her jaunt was just a big cosmic joke. The Gods were all sitting upstairs on their clouds, chortling away at her expense.

_:The story of my liiiiiiiiieek!:_

A bird in a nearby tree squawked and fluttered for safety when the Companion below it tripped over some bit of downed greenery on the forest floor and went down into the dirt with an ear-splitting crash.

_:Ow.:_

Shaking her head, Zaci took a moment to catch her breath and get her head to stop spinning before heaving herself back to her feet with a venomous glare at the half-hidden branch that had tripped her up in the first place. The glare was followed by a mournful look at the blood that had begun dripping down one of her legs, spilling from a wound that stung but was far less than mortal.

_:Perfect.:_

Heaving a sigh, Zaci tested her ankle, and when it proved not to be injured beyond the scrape, she started off once more.

_:Whoever I'm going to find had better be good at grooming. And be grateful. And worth it.:_

o-o-o-o-o

They hadn't caught anything yet but Fern couldn't have cared less about that. She was happy just being with her father and mother… just like the old days, before they'd lost Bryce.

It wasn't _quite_ the same, of course, without his sandy-blonde head poking into everything and just generally being annoying. It would_ never_ be quite the same again—but at least they were _trying_, and her parents were about as back to normal as she figured they would ever be.

Fern had always loved the woods anyway. Probably because she'd spent more time in _them _in her short lifetime than in the village; she'd been raised in the Pelagiris and it was her home.

Sighing contentedly, Fern poked at the remnants of the fire, stirring the ashes with a stick and making the last of the flames crackle.

_This is how it _should _be._

Her parents had gone off to a nearby stream for water and some "alone time." She wasn't quite sure what they meant by that, but she _was_ sure she didn't want to know—so she sat by the dying fire and contemplated her new life in comparison to life before the summer Fever that had taken her younger brother from her not-so-long ago.

_I never thought I'd say this… but I miss him._

o-o-o-o-o

Zaci was pouting, much as anything horse-shaped _could _pout, and had given up on the "graceful, majestic Companion" image long, long ago. Now, she stomped through the underbrush in a barely-controlled tantrum, which had been brought on by many things, but only actually _loosed _after she fell.

Blood was not something she enjoyed seeing, never mind _wearing_. Defiantly, she flared her nostrils and Shouted at nothing: _:and if this stupid forest thinks it's going to stop me from finding my _Chosen_, it is _sadly mistaken_!:_

Another bird—one of many in the nearby trees—chirped in reply, and Zaci levelled a flat look on the offending party before shoving through yet _another _patch of thick brush—

—and stumbling into a clearing. A _warm _clearing. With a semi-passably fire and a human girl, who blinked at her in surprise when she appeared from nowhere and nearly fell on her. Zaci stopped, more than a little shocked to have suddenly come upon a campsite, and then blinked at the girl in the exact same way the girl was blinking at _her_.

Eyes met.

Souls touched.

_:OH MY GODS!: _Zaci shrieked, dropping her dignity completely and gping at the girl, who was gaping openly right back at her; _:IT'S YOU!:_

o-o-o-o-o

The dirty, muddy, dusty, blood-stained, bur-infested, leaf-strewn, bedraggled and tired looking creature in from of her _couldn't _be a Companion… could it? But there was nothing else she knew of that had the same piercing, heavenly blue eyes.

Such a beautiful sapphire…

Fern caught herself staring and jerked herself out of the hypnotic gaze of the equine in front of her, feeling strange and disjointed, and then—

_:OH MY GODS! IT'S YOU!:_

Yelping, Fern jumped a good foot into the air and scrambled to her feet, dropping the fire stick and uttering a string of curses that would have had her parents grounding her for a month. The Companion, meanwhile—she was sure that's what it was now—had brought its head up and was practically dancing in place; Fern decided that giddiness in a horse was a strange, strange thing to behold.

"What—"

_:It's you!: _The Companion repeated in a more controlled manner, and then stepped forward and pressed her nose firmly into Fern's chest. _:I am Zaci.:_ She informed the flabbergasted girl, _:and Fern Sawyer, I most definitely Choose you.:_


End file.
